NEW YORK – U.S. consumer confidence retreated this month, giving up its July gains, amid news of plunging stock prices and sagging home values, according to a report today by The Conference Board.
The board’s Consumer Confidence Index fell to 105.0 points (1985 = 100) from last month’s revised level of 111.9, in what Bloomberg News said was the steepest since just after Hurricane Katrina. Yet the index remained above the 104-point median forecast from a Bloomberg survey of 73 economists.
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The index – based on a monthly survey of a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households – rises when consumers say they are confident about the economy and falls when they say they are less confident. Values are based on a scale where 100 points is the confidence level found in 1985.
The share of consumers seeing current conditions as good fell to 26.4 percent this month from 28.3 percent in August, while those seeing conditions as bad rose to 16.3 percent from last month’s 14.5 percent. Their view of the job market also was less sunny.
Consumers’ predictions for business conditions and the labor market over the next six months were slightly gloomier than last month, but the share expecting their incomes to rise was unchanged at 19.1 percent.
“A softening in business conditions and labor market conditions has curbed consumers’ confidence this month,” Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center, said in a news release. “In addition, the volatility in financial markets and continued subprime housing woes may have played a role in dampening consumers’ spirits.
“But, despite less favorable conditions and in spite of all the recent turmoil, consumers still remain confident,” Franco said, “and current index levels suggest further economic growth in the months ahead.”
Additional information is available at www.Conference-Board.org.
